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Lesbian utopia
sign made from two linked astronomical symbols for Venus. In ancient times the metal copper was associated with the Roman goddess Venus because of its visual appeal. Copper's ancient alchemy symbol, a circle (for matter) above a cross (for spirit), became a sign for both the goddess and the planet. It was later also used to represent the female in biology and popular culture. Here, it is doubled and twined in symbolic hues of lilac as a sign for lesbian.]] Lesbian utopia refers to a conceptual community made up entirely of biological females who are not dependent on men for anything.Usage example: Montreal Mirror, A Condo of One's Own, Jane Shulman, May 2007Usage example: Off Our Backs, Sexual violence within lesbian battering, Lori B Girshick, Oct 2001 The concept of an all-female society is mentioned in Greek mythology through a legend of the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors. In this legend, once each year the Amazons call upon the Gargareans and mate with them. Reproduction As with many species, human reproduction requires an egg (from the female), a sperm (from the male) and a womb as a suitable environment with an available source of nutrients in which an embryo can develop into a fetus and gestate until childbirth. Scientists have created mouse pups from two female mice.BBC News: Mice created without fathers, 21 April 2004 There is a possibility that with further research the same or similar procedure could allow two human females to be the genetic parents of the same child.BBC News: Lesbian couples 'could have own baby', 18 January 2002 Scientists have found a way to fertilize human eggs using genetic material from any cell in the body.BBC News: Eggs fertilized without sperm, 10 July 2001 This could eventually allow two or more females to conceive and bring a baby to term without male assistance. Meanwhile same-sex marriages or unions have gained legal support in several countries. It is as yet unknown if this biotechnology could be applied to humans, regardless of any ethical issues which may arise.About.com, Parthenogenesis: Do We Need Men Anymore? Creating Children Without Men or Sperm, Kathy Belge, retrieved 14 September 2007 Culture A historical fictional example of this concept is Herland, a novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). The full text is available online here. More contemporary examples of lesbian utopian fiction include Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1975) and Nicola Griffith's Ammonite (1993). These often include the premise that a gender-specific pandemic has eradicated all male human life on Earth or another world. The lesbian survivors usually reproduce through parthenogenesis, whether through benign mutation or technological progress. The 1984 Polish science fiction comedy Sexmission features two men, subjects of a hibernation experiment, who wake to find themselves in a post-apocalyptic, all female society. The comic book series Y: The Last Man, is set in the United States, after a plague has killed all men in the world but one. British sci-fi writer Edmund Cooper explored the subject in several of his novels, including 5-12 and Who Needs Men. See also * Separatist feminism * Lesbian feminism References Category:Sexual orientation and science Category:Lesbianism